The Land Rover Defender has gone...

Our Defender has now been sold... We're sad to see it go, so here's a few photos of some of the fun we had with it.

Moving logs:

In the snow:

With family visiting:

Near Dungeness, soon after we bought it:

Of course there were less happy times too, like when some numpty skidded into us on ice - though his radiator, bonnet and lights were busted while we had a bent bumper!

and when the clutch broke, while we were in the wood

Anyway, we have a Suzuki Grand Vitara now, which will hopefully be more reliable and practical, even if it doesn't have as much character.

Before we let the Defender go, we did have one last job for it, moving some more logs! Here's the pile after 12 trips back and forth:

We left some barrier tape round the pile to at least indicate to any passing children that it's not a safe place to climb. Doesn't mean they won't, of course, but we've done our bit.

Lastly, the Bluebells in Sweep Wood are looking amazing now! I'm going to get some more photos soon, but here's one to keep you going:

Mike

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Move logs while the sun shines

OK, I know you're meant to make hay while the sun shines, but we don't have any hay, it's too early in the year, and this weather is great for moving logs. In the winter we leave the logs stacked near where they are felled to start seasoning, as moving them straight out of the wood would make a real mess of the tracks.

But now it's been (abnormally) dry here for weeks, the tracks are firm enough to drive on without making a mess, so it's back to this game again...

Back near the camp, we laid out some bearers on one of the old rides we wont need to drive on:

and stacked the wood as it came down, here's the result of four trips in the land rover:

To the left of the oak tree you can see a pile of smaller wood that we sorted while unloading - this will be for making kindling.

The woodland itself is greening up at an incredible rate:

and the few pears we're permitting one of our trees to grow are coming on OK:

Sadly, there's another reason for moving logs right now - we're selling the land rover and our little Aygo, and buying a more efficient 4x4 so we can just have a single car. I'll really miss the land rover, as it great for jobs like moving logs, but having moved house we've decided we need the space saved by having a single car, and it'll save us paying two lots of insurance and servicing, even if we do spend a bit more on fuel as a result of the Aygo going.

Mike

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A Hornbeam woodland

On Sunday we went to a SWOG event in a Hornbeam woodland near Gatwick. It couldn't really look more different to our wood:

Much more open, and also less flat and wetter. It wouldn't suit what we do in the woods, but it makes for very nice pictures:

The first part of the visit was hosted by Gatwick Green Space, which is run by Sussex Wildlife Trust. They're renting part of the woodland for their activities, and for them it was an opportunity to form links with other nearby owners. They took us on a tour of the wood, explaining how they are managing it to promote wildlife habitat.

They also brought four Kelly Kettles - the most I've seen lit at once:

and used the leftover embers in them to light this 'upside down' fire:

The fire worked well, with the heat at the top drying out the wood below as the fire burned downwards. Later on they cooked us a great lunch of soup, sausages, venison and baked beans!

After lunch we went to visit David Plummer's wood, which is nearby. He's a professional photographer who runs training courses in the wood, where he has everything set up for ideal photos of birds, using perches with food in them and hides:

He took us round the wood, telling us about the wildlife and what happens on the courses he runs.

There's even a toilet for visitors!

Because he's there so much, and feeds the birds, some of them have become very tame. This Robin came along and sat close enough for me to get some nice pics:

That's nothing compared to what you'd get in a proper session with David though - you can see his courses here.

Finally, two interesting pics I got while walking round; a fallen ash with a huge burr on it, the biggest I've ever seen:

and a land rover Defender that's much more beat up than ours is!

That's all for now. It looks like it'll be cold again soon, so there may be some more snow pictures coming...

Mike

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Even MORE snow in the woods!

On Thursday I posted pictures of Rye after the heavy snow, and yesterday we went up to the woods in the Land Rover to take some pictures and process more firewood. It's the most snow I've ever seen in East Sussex, in fact the most anywhere, apart from Cairngorm!

This is the track into the woods:

Of course, this holds no fear for the Land Rover - we'd just driven safely down a steep hill that was too icy to walk on without falling over!

To give you a better idea of how deep the snow was up in the wood, here it is lying on a stile, with a credit card for scale:

The snow had piled up on everything it could, including stools:

and our firewood shelter:

Well, we were there to process firewood, so we loaded our cutting rack a couple of times with split year-old wood:

and that was enough to finish refilling it:

We fed the birds as well, topping up the bird feeder and also leaving some on the ground for the Robins, who aren't so keen on using the feeder. If fact, it was the Coal Tits who went there first:

but they spend more time in the feeder usually:

There were actually two Robins around, so there was a bit of fighting and showing off - I guess an area where humans leave food is prime territory...

We were also pleased to see a Nuthatch, digging for bugs in the Oak trees:

but it also ventured down to the feeder as well:

Apart from working and feeding the birds, we also got loads of pics of the snow scenes. I'll include them all here, as I think my Mum may want to get some of them printed for making cards...

Back at home, the icicles had reached a huge size:

and the splashing from the leaky gutter has iced the bin:

Well, it's all melting now, and it's raining, but it's going to cold again tomorrow night. No more snow for now I think, but plenty of frost - which is better for work in the woods, really.

Mike

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